A NEW television service aimed at Irish emigrants in Britain will be on air by early next year, it is expected to be announced today.
The service, which has a working title of Diaspora TV, is likely to be a hybrid of RTÉ One and RTÉ 2 with some additional programming from TG4. The Six Oneand 9pm news will be carried live. Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan is due to make the announcement today to coincide with St Patrick's Day.
The new service to Britain will be a satellite service and is part of a wider international service being developed by RTÉ.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, who has long associated himself with the campaign to make RTÉ available in Britain, is also expected to play a central role, Mr Ryan said. The Department of Foreign Affairs, through its consular links in Britain, has promised assistance to vulnerable and older Irish people living there who may not be able to afford the cost of installing satellite receiver boxes.
Diaspora TV will be provided via Freesat in the UK, which will require the purchase of a viewing box.
Mr Ryan said he will be working with Mr Ahern to ensure that vulnerable groups in the UK will be supported in receiving the service.
"Diaspora TV will provide the Irish abroad with a valuable link to home," Mr Ryan said this weekend.
The 2001 census in Britain records a figure of 850,000 Irish-born people living in Britain.
Groups representing the Irish abroad, particularly in the UK, have long complained about the non-availability of RTÉ television abroad.
Some of the groups have recently said this sense of exclusion has been compounded by RTÉ Radio's announcement that it is to drop its medium wave service.
RTÉ is increasingly using technology to make its programmes and transmissions more widely available. While the broadcaster has yet to develop its version of the BBC's successful "iplayer", it has made a substantial amount of programming available on IPTV, or TV over the internet, to better serve Irish people around the world.
This weekend the Department of Communications said that its website was already receiving a huge number of visitors from overseas.
"The IPTV service, when combined with RTÉ's podcasting and internet radio services, will offer a truly comprehensive service to the Irish diaspora," said a department spokeswoman.
RTÉ programming was previously available in Britain through a satellite company, Tara Television, but the service was terminated in 2002.
One of the hurdles facing the extension of the service is the costs associated with clearing rights for making programmes available to a wider audience.
In a bulletin to staff in the spring of 2007, the RTÉ Authority said the broadcaster would need to move slowly with developing a service for the diaspora because of the substantial transmission costs.
No details are yet available as to the funding proposals for Diaspora TV, such as whether RTÉ and TG4 will be expected to contribute, and if so, what proportion of the costs the two broadcasters will be asked to bear.